ABGTTMENT OF JOHN S. EWART. 1269 



contention, have a right to go into the larger bays, they would not 

 have a right to go upon the shores of those bays, without treaty stipu- 

 lation, in order to dry and cure their fish ; and that is the privilege 

 which is given to them by the treaty. The treaty does not give them 

 a right to go in and fish merely in the larger bays, but a right to dry 

 and cure in any of the unsettled bays, harbours, and creeks of Nova 

 Scotia. 



Now, Sirs, supposing that we should argue to-day, on the basis of 

 that treaty, in support of a claim by Great Britain to exclude Ameri- 

 can fishermen from a right to dry and cure fish in the larger bays, 

 saying that the treaty merely meant territorial bays, and that terri- 

 torial bays were only 6 miles wide, I cannot imagine that we should 

 have much success. 



We should be told, and very properly told, that there could have 

 been no object in excluding the Americans from the larger bays the 

 6^-mile bays, for instance. When the treaty says any bay " any of 

 the unsettled bays" does it not mean large bays as well as small 

 bays ? the Bay of Fundy as well as the little bits of bays ? It seems 

 to me, Sirs, that it is impossible that we could have made such a claim, 



and it is quite impossible that it could have been supported. 

 765 My second observation upon the treaty of 1783 is this: that 

 all the bays are put in the second clause of it. What we have 

 in the first part of the treaty is " on the Grand Bank and on all the 

 other banks of Newfoundland ; also in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and 

 all other places in the sea." 



Now, there is not much doubt as to what that means. That does 

 not include any of the bays. It means the open sea the banks, the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence, and other places in the sea. 



Then, where did the right to go into the bays come from? For 

 American fishermen did get a right to go everywhere by this treaty. 



Undoubtedly it was by the language of the second paragraph. 

 They shall have liberty to fish on the " coasts, bays, and creeks of all 

 other of His Britannic Majesty's dominions in America." 



The only right they got then in respect of the bays was under that 

 second paragraph, and those " bays " must have meant " all bays." 



And, my third observation is that the word " bays " comes between 

 the words "coasts" and "creeks" "coasts, bays, and creeks" evi- 

 dently meaning all along the shore wherever there were coasts or 

 bays or creeks they all go together, embraced in one inclusive sen- 

 tence, and those bays necessarily included " all bays." 



Lastly, I need not do more than merely refer to the appearance, 

 and the significance of the appearance, of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 

 as I have just dealt with it. 



Passing to the treaty of 1818, I make the same observation with 

 reference to the interpretation of the " bays," where it occurs in con- 



